Interviews from Yale University Radio WYBCX

Interviews from Yale University Radio   WYBCX


Desi Mundo

August 13, 2020

Desi Mundo was interviewed last year, and is an Oakland-based spray paint educator, hip-hop cultural diplomat and the founder of the Community Rejuvenation Project, a pavement to policy mural organization that has produced more than 250 murals, throughout the Bay Area as well as nationally and internationally. His mural with Pancho Peskador, the “Universal Language” galvanized the Oakland community in the struggle against gentrification resulting in $20 million in community benefits, as documented in the acclaimed documentary film “Alice Street.” Desi’s legacy as an educator and youth worker in K-12 schools spans two decades. He received the “Rising Leaders” Fellowship from the Youth Leadership Institute in 2005 and has been awarded the Individual Artist grant from the City of Oakland eight times. Desi recently completed “AscenDance,” a 91 ft. tall acrylic mural on Oakland’s Greenlining Institute, with an all-woman all-star team of brush painters.

AscenDance in Production (photo by Eric Arnold)

The complete mural getting several layers of clear coat for lasting protection.